Brett Brown Has Developed His Own Unique Vernacular With The Sixers

In the NBA, the generational divide between a player and a coach can sometimes feel insurmountable. NBA players are young and hip, plugged into the language of youth in a way that can alienate them from their elders. How can a partnership be successful if the two sides don’t even speak the same language?

Sixers coach Brett Brown has apparently been working on the antidote to that problem. Instead of fighting the losing battle of trying to adopt the language of youth, Brown has rather shrewdly immersed his players in his own singular vernacular, which reportedly consists of all sorts of oddball aphorisms that you wouldn’t expect to hear on a basketball court.

For instance, if his players are moving the ball well, he calls it “popcorn popping,” which, fittingly enough, stems from his love of popcorn. And there are plenty more where that came from. According to J.J. Redick, the team’s scouting reports are filled with his colorful little sayings, as well as others that appear in practice every day.